1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to textile sleeves for protecting elongate members, and more particularly to woven sleeves.
2. Related Art
It is known to wrap wires and wire harnesses in protective sleeves, such as in automobiles, aircraft or aerospace craft, to provide protection to the wires against abrasion, fluid and thermal affects. In order to achieve the desired protection, the protective sleeve may have multiple layers, with some of the layers being specifically provided for different types of protection. For example, one layer may be provided for water resistance, e.g. a sheet of plastic material, while another layer may be provided for abrasion resistance, and yet another layer may be provided for protection against thermal conditions, e.g. a non-woven layer. Although the aforementioned multilayer sleeves may provide suitable protection against the various environmental conditions, unfortunately they are typically bulky, thereby requiring an increased volume of space, and further, they tend to be relatively heavy and exhibit low flexibility. This can prove detrimental in some applications, particularly applications requiring routing cables or hoses through tight, winding areas, as well as applications having weight restrictions, such as aircraft and aerospace applications, for example.